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3. The Wise Mens' View - Milo Wilson (Matthew 2:1-12) FIRST CHRISTMAS

FIRST
CHRISTMAS Series

We
celebrate the coming of Jesus to earth each year at Christmas time.
But what were the impressions, responses, and transformations of
those involved in the very first Christmas? In this series we'll
look at those first impressions, and in them, learn how we can and
should respond to the reality that God in the Person of Jesus came
to earth to bring transformation to human beings who respond to His
love and grace.

3.
The Wise Mens' View (Matthew 2:1-12)

The
wise men (also called magi) who came to see Jesus after His birth
lived hundreds of miles away to the East, and they were not at all
Jewish. What was their view of this most important event? Let's
see what insight the Scriptures provide.

Sermon
Preparation Guide

Importance
– What are the central ideas of the text?

The
coming of Jesus as Messiah is the fulfillment of prophecy. Matthew
2:4-6

Some
will accept the messiah; others will reject Him; others will simply
ignore Him. Matthew 2:2-5

Jesus
is indeed the Messiah and He is worthy of our worship and our
offerings. Matthew 2:10 & 11

Implications
– What questions should the listener be asking?

What
does it mean to you that Jesus‘ coming is the fulfillment of
prophecy?

What
is it that causes people to reject or ignore Jesus?

What
is your response to Jesus’ birth?

Talk
it Over Discussion Guide

Interpretation
– What is the text telling/showing us?

Why
did Matthew tell the story of the wise men coming to worship Jesus?
What was important about the wise men?

What
did the wise men understand about Jesus which led them to want to
travel to see Him?

Why
did the wise men come to Jerusalem?

What
were King Herod’s thoughts and motivations in the way he
responded to the inquiries of the wise men?

What
were the thoughts and response of the chief priests and scribes to
the inquiries of the wise men?

Why
did King Herod gather the chief priests and scribes? How did King
Herod know to equate the baby born king of the Jews with the
Messiah?

Describe
how the wise men responded to actually seeing the baby Jesus? Was
there a progression in their understanding of this baby from verse
1 to verse12, and what was that progression?.

Implementation
– What should the listener’s response be?

How
does God reveal Himself to us? How did He lead the wise men to
understanding about Himself?

What
is it about what the wise men did that is laudable and you can
learn from in your response to Jesus?

Compare
the responses to Jesus of the wise men, of King Herod and of the
chief priests and scribes? What do those responses tell us about
responses to Jesus even in today’s age?

If
you came to know of good news about a great event that could change
your life, how would you respond?

Why
should we worship Jesus like the wise men?

What
gifts can we give to Jesus?

Who
is the central character in the story told in these verses?

Sermon
Teaching Notes (as
prepared by Pastor Dick Murphy)

Investigation
– What’s generally going on in this area of Scripture?

Jesus
has been born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph; the shepherds have
come to see for themselves the actuality of what the angels had told
them, then left praising God and telling what they had seen and
heard. In this study concerning the wise men, we find that more time
has passed, perhaps as much as nearly two years, since Jesus’ birth
(Matthew 2:1, 16). During this time period from Jesus’ birth,
there were certain
wise
men from the east who came to know from
the appearance of a special star about
the birth of
the king of the Jews.
Who were these men and how did they respond to what they learned?

The
wise men, also referred to as “magi,” were from “the east.”
These men were likely from Babylon in Persia (present day Iraq), and
they were members of a class of individuals who were students of
astrology, dreams and magic ,and who were particularly interested in
the future and predictions about the future. They were also students
of books written about these things, and about the activities of the
deities in human affairs. (To get an idea about the ancient wise
men, read the Old Testament book of Daniel in which the wise men of
Babylon play an important part.) These men often became influential
advisors, and could be wealthy as well, reaping
significant compensation for their counsel.
Given their interests and the fact that they could help others in
their understanding of life and events, it was also the case that
there were frauds who posed as wise men to make money by providing
supposedly meaningful advice. The wise men in
the text certainly
do not appear to be such. Note that they were not kings themselves,
and the description of them as “three kings” from the orient is
not Biblical but is rather a later tradition that developed in the
telling of this story. In any case, these wise men were students of
the heavens and literature concerning events and the future, and they
would use their learning and inquiries to discern and learn about
events and people. Apparently, they had observed a special star
(Matthew 2:2), which must have been a new celestial body or light of
some kind (presumably appearing supernaturally, as there are no
historical
astronomical
events that correlate with this star from that time). They deemed
this new star to be “his star” (Matthew 2:2) and linked it to the
birth of a “king of the Jews.” Perhaps they had read Numbers
24:17, or Isaiah 60:1-3, or Psalm 72, all
of which speak of a Jewish king to come.
If these wise men were indeed from Babylon, where
there
was a sizable Jewish community dating from the days of Daniel, that
fact lends
credence to their knowing Jewish Scriptures.

The
wise men were so interested in the event and the coming of this one
born king of the Jews that they wanted to come to worship him. At
this point, their “worship” was likely homage to a new king as
opposed to worship as we would understand it. So they left their
homes to travel to Israel, a trip of some 800-900 miles which would
have taken months of travel for the wise men to arrive at their
destination, particularly if they were traveling with an entire
entourage in caravan fashion which seems likely given their status in
their own country. But they were determined to find this king, so to
Jerusalem they went, supposing that this Jewish
capital
city would be where the baby would have been born. They arrived in
Jerusalem and began asking about where the one born “king of the
Jews” might be. Word of their arrival and questions quickly
circulated and reached King Herod, who was the Roman appointed
monarch of the area, having been so named in 40 B.C. Herod is
referred to as Herod the Great and was of Idumean descent (Edom). He
was wealthy, gifted, loyal to Rome and an excellent administrator.
He initiated and completed a number of grand building projects in the
territory, not least of which was the Temple in Jerusalem. However,
he was also ruthless, having killed off all those of the Hasmonean
family who had ruled before him, including his wife who was of
Hasmonean descent. Because of his Idumean background, the Jewish
authorities considered him a pretender to the throne, and hated him
as a result. In the later years of his reign, which in fact was the
time frame for the events of Matthew 2, he was even more paranoid
about those who would oppose him, and also suffered an illness which
fed his paranoia. He even killed two of his sons, among other
associates, who were deemed to be a threat to his rule. You can
imagine his thinking when he heard the news about these wise men who
had come visiting Jerusalem and asking about a supposed king of the
Jews. Matthew 2:3 says he was “troubled” and adds that the rest
of the city was troubled as well, wondering not so much about the
answer to the question of the wise men as about what King Herod might
do!

King
Herod gathered the Jewish authorities, namely the chief priests and
scribes, and interestingly inquired about this “king of the Jews”
by asking them where the Messiah was to be born. How
did he know to ask about the Messiah as opposed to a king?
Apparently King Herod had sufficient knowledge of Jewish writings
and beliefs, and of pagan beliefs concerning stars and their
purported predictive value, to know both about the expected Messiah
and about astrological predictions, and he connected this knowledge
with the baby
the wise men were seeking to find. The chief priests and scribes
were the Jewish religious hierarchy and were the experts in Jewish
Scriptures and teachings; they were principally made up of Pharisees
and Sadducees, two groups that did not like each other to say the
least. Perhaps the King brought both groups in at the same time to
be assured of accurate responses to
his questions,
with the one group balancing the other. These individuals knew the
answer to the King's question immediately, and quoted Scripture from
Micah 5:2 and II Samuel 5:2 to indicate that this ruler would come
from Bethlehem. This was the answer the King needed, as he then
summoned the wise men for a secret meeting to find out when the star
appeared and send them on a “fact-finding” mission and
instructed
them to bring a full report to him. One thinks that he had already
made up his mind to kill the child, this threat to his own throne,
based on the events that occurred subsequently (Matthew 2:16). All
he told the wise men, however, was that he wanted to worship this
child along with them.

So
off they went to Bethlehem (Matthew 2:9). The star that they had
seen was still in the heavens, and it seemed to lead them along until
it “stopped” over the place the child was located (Matthew 2:9).
As they saw the star, they “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”
(Matthew 2:10) What a marvelous response to knowing they were about
to reach the end of their “quest” to find this king of the Jews.
Everything they had studied and inquired about was coming to pass!
Presumably through discreet inquiry in this small village, whose
residents already knew of the baby from the shepherds who had come
months earlier (Luke 2:17 & 18), they found the house where Jesus
was living. That Jesus and his earthly parents were now in a house,
and that Jesus is referred to as a child rather than a baby, are
additional indications that significant time had elapsed since Jesus
was born. Upon seeing the child with Mary, the wise men immediately
bowed down and worshiped him. They then showered Jesus with gifts
from their treasures, specifically gold, frankincense (a valuable
incense) and myrrh (a valuable perfume). It was important in the
eastern cultures for one to give gifts to superiors; so in this
situation, it was quite appropriate and even expected that the wise
men would give gifts to this new “king of the Jews.” We don't
know how long these wise men spent with Mary, Joseph and their child,
though one would think that having traveled so far and for so long,
they would have spent some amount of time at least to talk and share
with the parents and to hear from them what had transpired. In due
course, they determined to return to their country; but they were
warned by
God
in a dream not to return to King Herod, and thus they traveled home
via a different route, by-passing Jerusalem entirely and adding many
miles to their journey.

So
what was the view of these wise men of the coming of Jesus? These
were men who sought knowledge from outside themselves, in their case,
from the stars and other heavenly bodies, from literature, from the
writings of various religions including Judaism, and from dreams. It
might be said that they were “seekers” of the truth, though
undoubtedly many never found truth. Nevertheless, in their
searching, they discovered the baby born to be “king of the Jews.”
That discovery was brought about by God's sovereign leading through
the star as much as by their own study. Yet they were indeed
diligent in their study and did believe that one had been born who
already was king of the Jews at birth (in contrast to one who was to
become king), and who had his own star to signify his birth. This
level of revelation to the wise men convinced them sufficiently that
they undertook an arduous trip to
Jerusalem,
likely at great expense and personal cost, where they anticipated
this child would be. They recognized that there were forces at work
beyond themselves, and that those forces were focused on the birth of
a baby. Did they understand that this was the work of the sovereign,
all-powerful God of the universe? Probably not, though they were
familiar with the Jewish Scriptures and presumably the God of those
Scriptures. Yet they pursued what was revealed to them and sought
after its meaning. They knew enough that this king of the Jews was
worthy of worship, and they intended to do just that (Matthew 2:2).
They experienced extraordinary joy is discovering more fully what had
happened, as the star “led” them to the actual place where this
child was living. And they worshiped Jesus, and gave Him gifts. As
they listened to the whole story from Joseph and Mary, one can
surmise that their spiritual eyes were opened further. At the very
least, these non-Jewish wise men responded to the extent of their
revelation, and responded with the appropriateness of worship, even
if they did not fully understand who they were worshiping and exactly
why. Yet they worshiped, they who were outsiders to God's work and
His people; and in them we see that indeed God was in the process of
bringing salvation to “all the people” (Luke 2:10), not just to
His chosen people. And the contrast between the response of the wise
men and that of Herod the Great and the chief priests and scribes is
remarkable. To King Herod, this baby born king of the Jews was a
rival, an enemy even; he was one to be eliminated no matter what the
words of Micah 5:2 and II Samuel 5:2 said. The only thing King Herod
was concerned about was his own power, his own ego, and his own
self-preservation. To the chief priests and scribes, who knew the
Scriptures and knew of the promise of the Messiah, and who expected
that God would provide the Messiah for His people, this baby born
king of the Jews sparked nothing in them by way of understanding,
curiosity, or recognition. These ones, who should have responded
given the revelation which they now
had
from God, were apathetic, uncaring and spiritually blind to what was
happening. Here was news that a baby had been born that seemed to be
the fulfillment of the very Scriptures they quoted to the King, and
yet they did nothing, they felt nothing, and they believed nothing.
And eventually, the successors to these Jewish leaders would reject
Jesus outright as Messiah and ultimately arrange for His execution.

What
a lesson to learn from the wise men, namely to seek after the truth
with diligence, and with confidence that God will let Himself be
known, and to respond to God in worship and devotion. God has shone
the light of His grace and mercy in Jesus, offering in Him salvation
and eternal life itself. Like the wise men, all should seek after
this light and open up to to it. God is still calling people today.
Would that people will respond in belief and worship.